French Presidential Candidate François Hollande: ‘N…s in Paris.' Really?

Yesterday, during a debate at the United Nations in Geneva I had the great pleasure of meeting Mireille Fanon Mendes, daughter of Frantz Fanon.

We discussed big ideas about how Africans and the African Diaspora can collectively tackle the persistent scourge of racism. She was enthusiastic, particularly about the need for ideas that are nuanced and subtle. ‘I’m African, but also French', she said,  'you cannot divorce the two.’ Then I spoilt the conversation by inquiring, ‘Why had the Socialist Presidential Candidate François Hollande used such a crude insulting sound track, full of profanities, in his video to attract young Black voters?’ When I informed her that Hollande had made a video going into Black areas with the sound track, 'N…s in Paris’ by Jay Z and Kanye West, her head sunk. ‘Oh my god’, she lamented, ‘Will they never learn! I will call François Hollande and tell him how wrong he is’.

I guess when you are the daughter of one of the greatest Black philosophical and intellectual writers that ever lived, Director of the Franz Fanon Foundation, and writer/activist in your own right, you can do that.

But Fanon’s intervention aside, if the next President of France could use a soundtrack titled ‘N…in Paris’, with profanities such ‘Mother F…’, you begin to wonder how he views Black people in France and beyond.

How can Black communities in France believe that there is life to be had outside of their housing ‘projects’, when their future Head of State only sees them as ‘ghetto’?

France is often a nation that seeks to see all its citizens as only French, yet clearly, it has difficulty in seeing its Black citizens beyond misogynistic poor people who are consumed with self-hatred.

Lets hope that if elected François Hollande will invite Ms Fanon Mendes into his Government to help him and the political elite not only view Black people as equals but also to treat them that way too.

On a brighter note Ms Mireille Fanon Mendes is keen to continue the conversation with Black Britons. Watch this space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rT5z_OMaQhg

Simon Woolley